1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an anti-shake apparatus for a photographing apparatus, and in particular to the movement of the movable unit to a position in a way that the shock caused by the impact between the movable unit and the point of contact which stops its movement is mitigated.
2. Description of the Related Art
An anti-shake apparatus for a photographing apparatus is proposed. The anti-shake apparatus corrects for hand-shake effect by moving a hand-shake correcting lens or an imaging device in a plane that is perpendicular to the optical axis, corresponding to the amount of hand-shake which occurs during the imaging process.
Japanese unexamined patent publication (KOKAI) No. 2005-292799 discloses an anti-shake apparatus that has a guide supporting the movable unit that moves for the anti-shake operation.
However, this anti-shake apparatus does not have a fixed-positioning mechanism that maintains the movable unit in a stationary position when the movable unit is not being driven (drive OFF state). Therefore, when the anti-shake operation is complete and the movable unit ceases to be driven with its drive status set to the OFF state, the movable unit is allowed to move freely according to the force of gravity, stopping only when it comes into contact with the part at the end of its range of movement. In the case where the movable unit makes contact with this part at a high rate of speed, the impact between the movable unit and the part may be large enough to break the contacting part or cause the operator of the photographing apparatus including this anti-shake apparatus to experience discomfort due to the shock of the contacting part.